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Left there a year ago. Not the worst job, GCS got bought by ECL 11 years ago and when I left they were still trying to figure out how to run a division with hourly paid employees as all others are base + comission. Seems like they are trying to change the restaurant equipment division into a model that closely resembles the Institutional (cleaning chemicals) division. Putting dispatching on the shoulders of the techs, anytthing they can to get rid of their overhead. Most companies don't have a vp of marketing, vp of sales, customer service call center, several warehouses, etc. They try to earn new business by making agreements with chains that are difficult to meet. Four hour response times, no charge for parts, first time fix on specific equipment. They also drive sales pretty hard. You are given a monthly sales goal and I received phone calls from management how I expected to meet mine when I was taking a weeks vacation. Are you willing to work weekends that month to make up for the sales you'll lose? I was asked. If you meet your sales goals for the year they get raised for the next year. If you don't you can get written up and have to fill out an "action plan" of how you will meet your sales goals. They are also big on not allowing a service call to be incomplete for more than 3 days. If I jumped out an on/off switch on a plate warmer so it is turned off by unplugging it and got 3 days of high priority cust calls, I got 5 e-mails from 5 different ppl asking why the plate warmer call was still open. We were also assigned "territories" (just like Institutional). And were told if we don't have any new calls we were to go to existing customers and see if they needed anything or stop in and make cold calls at places even if the guy in a boardering territory had 13 new calls that day. What city are you in?

About $23,000. If you went to a training class you didn't make any sales on those days either. We did a lot of starbucks coffee machine installs too and those were a flat rate. So if you were in a hotel installing on the 16th floor you were taking a hit on your sales. Over the course of a year I would have some months were I did 30,000k in sales, but if I had a month in January where it was slow, took a few sick days, had some bad weather keeping me off the road, had to do a lot of warranty work, it might be only 12,000. And I would have to spend a few hours the next onth justifying this to 5 different people. The health benefits, 401k, pension, stock, incentive bonuses and pay were pretty good. But I think they are going to end up in a model where you have a territory and you're responsible for taking care of those customers 24/7. Talk to some of the institutional soap guys to get an idea of what kind of company ecolab is in the bigger picture sense. Every job is gonna have some frustrations. I was offered an oppurtunity with a smaller company that was more focused on the tech fixing stuff and the office taking care of everything else and I am happier. No hard feelings with Ecolab, just wasn't liking the direction they were going in. Also, I had to ask my regional manager if I should make a customer wait for service or go there on OT. We weren't supposed to take longger than 48 hours to go to a customer after they called in, but they were trying to cut down on OT too. He told me "I'm sure you'll make the right decision" way to pass the buck, I explained to him that if I knew what that was, I wouldn't be contacting him about it. I did as much communication in e-mail to CMA. Management didn't like that, when I brought up in a meeting an issue I had as an example there were times when they flat out lied denying it had happened and I would show them the e-mail in front of the other techs and then they would start back peddling. I didn't like that.

I've heard a few things from some area guys I've ran into. Like if they work before 8 or after 5 that the tech decides if a cal gets regular time or OT billing. And that the techs have a list of wo's for their area and decide their own route basically. This has all been stuff told to me since they went to their ipad tablet system.

When did service techs become sales reps? I thought we were to fix things and make them last a little longer? My job isn't solely based on sales.. In fact, I couldn't sell water to a fish. This angers me to no end that company's to this. I understand your in business to make money but selling someone something that they don't necessary need just to get your numbers up turns good people into sometimes crooks. Not saying that anyone here is a crook. I have been to many houses where I see (3) float switches on the same drain (4) UV lights and the home owner has no respiratory issues. Maybe I don't get it. I would never survive anywhere ells doing this trade if i have to meet a monthly and yearly goal. Now that doesn't mean I don't sell anything at all I just simply don't push the matter after I mention it, or if they absolutely need.

Amen to that Trehak01! A guy I used to work with went to another company in my area that paid "bonuses" (read comission) on parts sales. After one week of riding with one of their guys and seeing him replace an ignition module only and then also charge for replacing a t-stat and probe (that were fine and he didn't even change) on one job and replacing a bin t-stat but charging for a condenser fan motor (that he also didn't change as it was fine), he came back to our company. I might recommend replacing a functioning part due to age or condition so the customer doesn't have to pay for us to come back out a couple months later to diagnose and change it or if it's intermittent problem and I have it narrowed down to two parts recommend they change both parts so we're not back out to see if the problem will occur next time we're there, but I leave it up to them after thoroughly explaining the situation and answering honestly any questions they have.every business has to make money, but Ecolab is a publicly traded entity and is legally obligated to act in the best interest of their share holders.

restaurantguy79 - your description of working in Ecolab as a technician is spot on!

I left there last May with bad feelings for what Ecolab had done to the service company I worked at for thirteen years.

I'd hired on in 1998 with Commercial Parts & Service, which was a great group of people at our branch. Service and branch managers were in-house, along with parts support, billing, warranty personnel, etc. Our focus as technicians was SERVICE and our bonuses came primarily from our PRODUCTIVITY numbers  NOT SALES! THAT company set the benchmark for all others to strive for in our market. We had twelve techs hitting the roads in 2000.

After Ecolabs acquisition in 2001, the changes which evolved over the next eleven years resulted in their business ethics/practices and mine clashing. So, at the start of 2012, Id had enough. I secured other work and put in my notice on the 1st of May.

We HAD six techs in our market at the start of 2012. We lost a relative newby in January. He decided he wasnt going to put up with the treatment dished out to him by our so-called regional manager  IN FRONT OF A RESTAURANT MANAGER. After I left in mid-May, two others put in their notice in the next two weeks. Ecolab had two techs remaining here by the 1st of June.

Between the four of us leaving, there were 40+ years of experience WITH the company that walked away.

My company Eichenauer Services is a CFESA certified service company that services most of Illinois that is always looking for experienced commercial food technicians. My email is below so email me if you are still looking for a position in Illinois.